Hi, I’m Sharon!
I’m the founder and CEO of The Clean Language Institute.
After having trained Clean Language and Symbolic Modeling for over eight years, I created the Clean Language Institute in 2014 to better serve the global community of Clean learners.
The Institute
I wanted a place where people could come and, if they like, become “Picassos” of Clean.
The thing about Picasso that most people don’t realize is not that he was a master of creativity, which he was, but more so that he had the fundamentals of painting down so pat that it allowed him to create his art with intention and flexibility.
You may not be a fan of Picasso’s later work and what can be said about it is that it is uniquely his – his vision, his taste, his expression of the world he saw and experienced. This idiosyncratic view is what makes his art unique and valuable.
Working with people is not just a psychological or linguistic science, it is also an art. People are complex and the processes with which we work with them should not add to that complexity, but let people see themselves with clarity and compassion.
Working Cleanly is about bringing each client’s unique vision, desired outcomes, tastes, and experiences to the forefront of their own thinking and knowledge space. This is done through development of idiosyncratic (personal) metaphors of experience and what we call ‘self-modeling’.
I love teaching Clean and sharing it with others and I am constantly amazed at the results that individuals and groups gain from the use of this methodology.
The institute was created to bring greater access to Clean methodologies and principles in the US and other global communities interested in bringing this work to others.
We have worked with individuals from the fields of therapy, coaching, teaching, small business owners, interviewers and corporate leadership.
These are just some of the companies we’ve worked with
Could yours be next?
Our Logo
The Logo for the Clean Language Institute is an Ensō.
In Zen, an Ensō is a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create.
It symbolizes strength, elegance, the universe, enlightenment and mu (the void) and is a metaphor for a disciplined-creative practice.
An Ensō may be open or closed. I have used the former. The circle is incomplete, allowing for movement and development.
To me, the Ensō represents both simplicity and mastery.
Although the Ensō is one of the easiest strokes in Japanese calligraphy it is one of the most difficult to master. Deceptively simple in its ease of line often those who study calligraphy spend their entire lives mastering this simple circle created by one or, at the most, two stokes.
Just like Clean Language questions. They are simple questions and easy to learn – often memorized in a day or less. But mastering this methodology is a life time effort.
And as with the Ensō, you do not need to be a master to create something worthwhile. One can iterate learning from each client, each context, each situation becoming more fluid in ones modeling and application.
The Ensō is intended to represent human creativity and a learning cycle from model to actualize to iterate and around again. Each stroke or iteration being an act of art and inner creativity.
Why Clean Language & Symbolic Modeling?
Clean Language and Symbolic Modeling are radical and extremely effective methodologies that can help all kinda of people to achieve what they really want in life and work.
The Clean Language Institute is one of the only providers in the United States that delivers core and advanced clean language training, including an internationally recognized certification as a Clean Facilitator Level 1, through our training courses.
We train therapists, coaches, business and sales professionals, mediators, teachers, counselors, and more.
We are developing a whole new way of delivering training in Clean Language and Symbolic Modeling.
A way that will help you to learn it, to live it and, if you would like, to teach it.
A way that will give you a community of learners that will help you apply more of what you learn to what you do and love.
A way that, when applied consistently, will be the game-changer you’ve been looking for.
A Little About Me
I am a language enthusiast – words and semantics – primarily the subjective understanding of a word’s meaning and influence – have intrigued me since I was young. I have also been very curious about what makes people tick…and noticed early on that I ticked a bit differently to others. One of the best discoveries in my early 20’s was that EVERYONE ticked a bit differently and there was no “normal” – only squished together broadly generalized average behaviors and patterns. I love learning about what makes people tick and what brings meaning to their lives.
I admire people who somehow know just want they want and what they would like to do with their lives. With that said, I am also an enthusiast for mini-lives. You know, a bit like rub-a-dub-dub….a butcher, a baker, and candlestick maker.
At the center, all I have done has been towards a heart for service.
Our Enthusiastic Clean Players
James Lawley
SyM Co-Creator | The Developing Company
Super cool dude with a great British accent. Also created, along with Penny Tompkins, Symbolic Modeling. Even co-wrote a book about metaphors – totally worth a read – called Metaphors In Mind.
Penny Tompkins
SyM Co-Creator | The Developing Company
Nifty little native Texan who has spent more than half her life in Great Britain. Sharp as a tack, she created (along with James Lawley) The Developing Company which is dedicated to all things Clean.
James Ramirez
Executive Assistant & Clean Interview Specialist
Confidently provides assistance to founder, Sharon Small, during annual conferences and throughout the year. Smiles a lot 🙂 and never, ever forgets to take pictures.
Annemiek van Helsingden
Founder and CEO | Academy for Soul Based Coaching
Radiant woman, mother, mentor and the driving force behind Soul Based Coaching. Having explored transformations for over 30 years now, professionally and in my personal life, she would love to take you on the journey that lead to Soul-based Coaching.
Bonnie Primbsch
Founder | Ampersand Facilitative Services
Bonnie Jean Primbsch is our master mediator and facilitator extraordinaire. A native Californian and lover of nature, Bonnie brings an artistry and precision to her both her work and facilitation. She has helped Sharon conduct Clean Language trainings over the years, and after working with dozens of 1:1 clients of her own.
photo credit Jay Kensinger
Lynn Parks
Jill Of Some Trades | Mindseye Studio
A natural Oregon native (in spirit) has the heart of an artist and mind of an engineer. It if can be created, this gal can do it. Co-owner and managing partner of Mindseye Studio in Grants Pass Oregon. She is purveyor of excellent photography, graphics, design, organization, and can cook from scratch just about anything you could want to eat (for reals) (Q:what’s your favorite dish?)
I want to make this easy for you. In ANY type of work or in your own life, discover the power of using Clean Language in your inquiries. You will learn how to keep your stuff out while gathering their stuff in.
Sharon Small
Founder & CEO
Sharon is an independent researcher and internationally recognized Clean Language trainer, assessor and owner of the Clean Language Institute in California. Her love of innovation, creative solutions and diligence in learning makes her a perfect travel companion on your journey to improve your work, your life and your sense of Self. Sharon has been training others in Clean Language and Symbolic Modeling since 2008.
She has written various blogs about the use of Clean Language in highly volatile situations and has trained hundreds of people in the use of Clean Language questions and Symbolic Modeling for therapy, clean coaching, interviewing, management, and auditing.
Sharon believes that human language is one of the most fascinating topics that exists as a key to understanding humans: human knowledge, understanding, and structure of reality, all at the same time. She loves teaching and is well-known among the international Clean Language community.
Clean Language Institute
The Clean Language Institute came from my work as a Clean Language facilitator. I love teaching Clean and sharing it with others and I am constantly amazed at the results that individuals and groups gain from the use of this methodology.
The institute was created to bring greater access to Clean methodologies and principles in the US and other global communities interested in bringing this work to others in fields as divers as therapy, coaching, teaching, management and interviewing.
Sharon's "Why Clean"
With a heart for service, a bit of a stubborn nature, not liking to be told what to do, and a desire to keep my stuff out of other peoples stuff, I found my home in Clean.
- Respectful models
- Idiosyncratic – each person/group/business is modeling towards what they want to have happen in just the way it needs to be for them.
- Life changing on an identity level
- Change beliefs without having to label or conceptualize them as such
- Work with complexity of constraints and personal binds.
Why I Do What I Do
I love to teach coaches, therapists, and managers to listen differently and ask questions based on the other person’s model of the world.
I love to help them navigate the complexities of constraints – you know those things that are and need to be reworked with. It can be family, work processes and procedures, mutual needs, physical or even energy limitations – and more complex binding problems – those kinds of problems that don’t seem to have a way out, over or through…all without giving suggestion or overlaying their stuff on the other persons stuff.
Initially, learning this methodology may seem a bit slower to learn than ‘cookie-cutter’ models. And as you gain skill you will become a skillful modeler. This means that you will have the capacity to follow what is happening with your clients, co-workers or others you work with in real time and facilitate them to become better self-modelers.
This gives them greater capacity to move towards what they want to have happen and create solutions and strategies that work over the long term.
I love to teach face-to-face in small group format. My trainings are highly experiential, alive – meaning we do not use composites or lofty examples, but use one another and what is alive for us in the room – they encompass a larger methodology that can be adapted, as needed, to different contexts.
Got Clean?
Get started now.
Many reasons your life and work will be better with Clean Language.
You will become a better listener.
You will have the skills to work with your team in a way that is respectful and gains positive responses.
You will have fun as you begin to hear the symbolic language around you.
You will have greater capacity to make change where it is most meaningful.
You will be joining a small group of global life long learners.
You will simplify your thinking and work without ‘dumbing” it down.
You will have greater capacity to work with complex issues.
You will be a better thinker and increase your current reasoning skills.
You will become better at staying emotionally sane, even when faced with challenges.
You can use it to heat up your sex life.
By bringing Clean to your life, you will find out more about what you would like to have happen to build a life that brings you success (your way), contentment (your way) and joy (just the way you like it).
There are many reasons your life and work will be better with Clean Language
(besides it being downright fun).
You will become a better listener.
You will have the skills to work with your team in a way that is respectful and gains positive responses.
You will have fun as you begin to hear the symbolic language around you.
You will have greater capacity to make change where it is most meaningful.
You will be joining a small group of global life long learners.
You will simplify your thinking and work without ‘dumbing” it down.
You will have greater capacity to work with complex issues.
You will be a better thinker and increase your current reasoning skills.
You will become better at staying emotionally sane, even when faced with challenges.
You can use it to heat up your sex life.
By bringing Clean to your life, you will find out more about what you would like to have happen to build a life that brings you success (your way), contentment (your way) and joy (just the way you like it).
Seriously.
Clean Language IS a Game Changer.
Start changing your game today with our exclusive 5-day plan to implement Clean Language in to your life!